Vietnamese
Vietnam would develop eight key multimedia press agencies by 2030 under a draft strategy aimed at improving press quality and competitiveness, strengthening the economic sustainability of press agencies and accelerating digital transformation.
The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism (MOCST) has proposed a draft strategy for the development and management of the press system through 2030, with a vision towards 2045. This is the first press strategy to be formulated under the 2025 Press Law and the Party’s new guidelines on press and communications development, science and technology, digital transformation, and the building of Vietnamese culture in the new era.
Developing eight key multimedia press agencies
Under the draft, eight key multimedia press agencies would be developed by 2030, including Nhân Dân (People) Newspaper, the Vietnam Television, the Voice of Vietnam, the Vietnam News Agency, the People’s Army Newspaper, the People’s Public Security Newspaper, and the newspaper and radio-television agencies of Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City.
Such agencies are expected to serve as a core force in leading information flows, driving technological renewal, developing multi-platform content, and performing information and communication tasks in the new context.
With a view to forming national digital press platforms, the draft assigns the Vietnam Television to develop a specialised digital television platform, the Voice of Vietnam to develop a digital radio platform, and Nhân Dân Newspaper to develop an online journalism platform. The Vietnam News Agency would develop a multilingual and multimedia press data platform to provide official information with strong guiding value and the ability to shape public communication, while promoting its strengths in photojournalism and domestic and external information work.
MOCST says such important infrastructure facilities would help Vietnam’s press enhance its competitiveness, expand its reach to the public and reduce dependence on cross-border platforms.
The draft further sets a target that, by 2030, all press agencies, excluding scientific journals, would publish content on digital platforms, with priority given to domestic digital platforms; use integrated data analysis and processing platforms; and apply artificial intelligence to personalise readers’ experience and optimise operations. These measures are expected to contribute to safeguarding national information sovereignty in cyberspace.
Enhancing the economic sustainability of press agencies
Alongside its goal of developing a modern press system, the draft places strong emphasis on removing bottlenecks in financial mechanisms and enhancing the economic sustainability of press agencies.
According to MOCST, the shift of advertising revenue to cross-border digital platforms is putting significant pressure on the operations of many press agencies. Meanwhile, traditional business models are increasingly showing their limitations, requiring newsrooms to renew their operating methods and seek new sources of revenue.
The draft therefore identifies the need to further improve mechanisms for placing orders and assigning tasks to press agencies in charge of disseminating the Party’s guidelines and the State’s policies and laws. It also calls for the adoption of appropriate support policies to create favourable conditions for press agencies to develop sustainably.
In addition, the draft encourages press agencies to step up the development of digital services, exploit data, diversify media products and gradually form business models suited to the digital environment.
In fact, a raft of support policies have been offered to press agencies, including a preferential corporate income tax rate of 10 per cent and the development of techno-economic norms in journalism. Authorities are also working to redirect clean advertising revenue to the press through various measures, including recognising Vietnam’s audience data measurement platform for advertising purposes, encouraging Vietnamese brands to place more advertisements in mainstream media outlets, and publishing lists of non-mainstream press agencies and websites, along with recommendations on press advertising.
By December 2025, following the streamlining of the press system, the country had 733 press agencies, including 98 newspapers, 597 magazines and 38 radio and television stations and units. Of the magazines, 304 were scientific journals, accounting for 51 per cent of the total.
- (VLLF)
